Chapter 282: Cursed Tiger, Marine Hunting Operation
In the World Channel for the foreign races, there was a clutter of nonsense and incomprehensible messages asking for help, just like the one for humans.
However, three to five seconds later, when the game panel picked up the signal that it was not the Lioness who was viewing the channel, but Su Mo, all the messages started getting screened.
The idiots who were complaining to and seeking help from other foreign clans… vanished!
The dumbos who cursed, "Old Devil Su, you heartless thing!" also vanished!
As the number of foreign clans that could manipulate the game panel was different from that of humans, the screening process slowed the rate of posted comments instantly.
Su Mo looked closely and was able to read each message in clear detail as well as the information being conveyed.
"Let"s see. In the World Channel, there are a total of 340,000 foreign clans who have obtained posting permissions."
"In other words, before the marine creatures appeared, there were currently a total of 340,000 foreign clans on the doomsday wasteland."
"Of course, this also includes foreign clans like the lion people, who are already on the verge of extinction. If he had to estimate the number of the truly powerful ones…"
"Then there should be between 20,000 to 50,000 foreign clans!"
The number seemed a little daunting; nevertheless, Su Mo could not help but chuckle when he saw the comments posted on World Channel.
[Bone-Etching Great Sun Eclipse: Any experienced dudes near Black Mountain at the moment? I caught sight of a group of about 500 humans. After observing, I found that there are a lot of fat ones in the group, so fat that they"re literally oozing grease. I"m sure it"ll be a feast. I currently have only 80 Combat Strength and urgently need someone to come over and offer a.s.sistance.]
[The Isolated Phantom Crocodile: I think that group of bulky men aren"t to be messed with. A few days ago, I saw Old Wolf messing with them, but they began shouting "Hail, Spiny Ape!" and rushed up to him without an ounce of fear. The team was wiped out before we could even send backup. I suspect that either a powerful force is behind them, and that they were intentionally showing us their weaknesses in order to set us up, or they simply have superb combat strength. If you want to seek your own doom, please leave us out of it.]
[The Primordial Red Jackal: You"re scared, huh? You"re scared, aren"t you? I think that you"ve all been intimidated by Old Devil Su. Only the bravest and boldest survive nowadays. Wimps like you are always preaching and advocating to everyone about going to the New World to develop, but that"s just a load of codswallop. How much of a share do you think we can get when the marine creatures arrive?]
[Nine Heavens Electric Bone Sparrow: Hehe, what do the marine creatures have anything to do with us? We"ve gotten everything figured out anyway. When the humans are done building their s.h.i.+p, we will take their s.h.i.+p to the New World. But before that, none of you offend Old Devil Su or he"ll exterminate all of you—even the G.o.ds that are backing you up!]
[Affinity Extinguished Phoe-noceros: Not sure if you"re going to actually attack those humans, but we"ve done it three times now on our end. Humankind is a treasure. Not only do you get to eat their meat after slaughtering them, but you can also summon the portal, enhance your ability, and pick up new skills! That"s killing many birds with one stone! If you miss this opportunity, then there"s not going to be another one except in your dreams~]
…
Unlike humans, foreign races liked typing several sentences each, which made it quite painful to read.
However, after looking at the names, Su Mo scratched his head, feeling as though he was in a fantasy world.
"Whoa, these clans sure have some incredible names!"
"Could Lioness be at the bottom of the rankings amongst them?"
Filled with curiosity, Su Mo tilted his head. Upon a.n.a.lyzing Lioness" nickname, Su Mo snorted with a laugh.
Lioness went by the nickname Purple-Jade Steel-Eyed Lioness in World Channel, which sounded equally domineering and unusual.
Looking beyond the nickname, he saw her real name, Connie, which sounded a little western, which was connotative of a warm and gentle woman.
"So that"s how it is. I knew it…"
Trying to outdo each other, each clan had put in a lot of effort into naming themselves.
The clans were all trying their best to make their names sound mighty and domineering so as to ensure that their words carried weight.
Of course, this would never work in human society. Never. However, this practice seemed quite popular among these peculiar-thinking creatures.
Furthermore, the foreign clans were unlike anything one imagined them to be. In the World Channel, Su Mo not only saw human-like traits in them, as they searched for groups, studied and researched their way around things, and joked around with each other. Interestingly, he also saw his nickname appearing quite frequently.
"Old Devil Su?"
"Am I this popular among the foreign races?"
He stroked his nose and looked at the still-dazed Lioness. This sparked Su Mo"s interest, and he was about to stand up and go outside to examine the other functions when the chat channel suddenly went quiet.
Unlike the human"s World Channel, where there was a limit on the number of chats allowed per day, foreign clans could send a message every 30 seconds, with an c.u.mulative cap of up to a maximum of five messages at a time, due to the small numbers within each clan.
This mechanism not only ensured that no one would flood the channel, but also ensured that it would not stay too quiet when there were too few people online.
After seeing the channel quiet down, Su Mo stared at the last few messages and froze, a hint of solemnity on his face.
[Cursed Tiger: Quit your nonsense. There"s only 18 days left before the humans migrate. During these 18 days, clans that do not have more than 500 members are forbidden to partic.i.p.ate in any marine hunting operations.]
[Cursed Tiger: All clans that are unable to swim are required to pay the requisite price to learn swimming and become proficient at it within 18 days.]
[Cursed Tiger: I will repeat Old Devil Su"s coordinates again: Six Pans Marsh Land (11021, 32331).]
[Cursed Tiger: Clans that are looking to pa.s.s through this location are required to report in advance. The Five Major clans will unanimously agree on the time of attack. Do not act without permission.]
[Cursed Tiger: I hope all clans will inform each other about the contents of the above messages. Anybody who disobeys the orders will be summarily executed in the New World.]
The five intimidating messages looked just like a holy decree, silencing the World Channel completely as soon as it was posted.
Even the clans that were joking around earlier fell silent as though they had been banned from posting.
Moreover, unlike the other clans that added all sorts of odd prefixes to their names as a way of enhancing their prestige…
Cursed Tiger"s name was very simple and, given that fact, Su Mo could not help but focus his attention on it.
"Five Major clans? What"s that about?"
"Do cla.s.sifications exist within the foreign clans too?"
Seeing that his coordinates had been exposed, Su Mo was slightly surprised, but he did not make a fuss out over it after thinking things through.
The Underground Shelter could be located easily enough given his interactions with the foreign clans thus far. Coupled with the partial destruction of the lion clan, it came as no surprise that the foreign clans were informed of his whereabouts.
Upon hearing that the foreign clans were unanimously planning to launch an attack, Su Mo did not feel the slightest afraid.
On the contrary, Su Mo felt more apprehension when he heard about the "marine hunting operation".
In the human race"s World Channel, one could see the other party"s height and weight displayed as additional information.
In the foreign clan"s World Channel, however, information was scant. Aside from the basics like their names, one could only see the commenters" racial strength rating.
"Cursed Tiger has a racial strength rating of 9.2. That doesn"t seem very high."
"Let"s see what the lion clan"s rating is!"
Su Mo clicked on the Lioness" avatar as he spoke.
The value shown was very real. Purple-Jade Steel-Eyed Lioness" clan had only a 0.003 strength rating. Upon calculation, Cursed Tiger"s clan was 3000 times stronger than Lioness" clan!
After going back to the World Channel panel, Su Mo scrolled all the way to the top.
He started clicking on each commenting clan name one by one to check their strength ratings.
As soon as he finished looking through them, Su Mo immediately felt that things were not as simple as he had imagined.
"After doing some comparisons, Cursed Tiger does seem quite strong."
The more Su Mo studied, the more he understood why Cursed Tiger"s clan had gotten a 9.2 rating.
Clans like the 80-member Bone-Etching Great Sun Eclipse clan only had a strength rating of 0.8.
The Affinity Extinguished Phoe-noceros, the one who boasted about killing humans thrice now, only had a strength rating of 1.9.
In contrast, there was a distinct gap between the 9.2-strength rating Cursed Tiger clan and every other clan, clearly demonstrating its superiority.
There wasn"t much information available at this point, so after scanning through World Channel and Regional Channel, Su Mo was not stupid enough to question Cursed Tiger clan regarding their origins, but instead turned around and looked at Lioness as she sat in the corner.
"Cursed Tiger..."
"Connie, do you know the background of the Cursed Tiger clan? He seems to be… quite powerful?" Now that Lioness had been taken in, she would no doubt be a little sensitive.
Therefore, Su Mo was very careful with how he worded the question. He tried to avoid using words that could evoke a lot of emotions to express his query.
After hearing what Su Mo said, Lioness Connie first showed a hint of trepidation, but later looked dazed and bewildered.
Her change of demeanor resembled the traitors seen in Hong Kong movies; the confused and dazed expression they had when being questioned after betraying their own boss.
Connie had personally witnessed the fall of Heavenly Dog Pseudo G.o.d, but for the Cursed Tiger clan to still be able to instil fear at this point meant that they would have left a lasting impact and impression on her or had an extraordinary background.
"Don"t be afraid. I know Cursed Tiger may be powerful, but don"t worry, he"s still a little weaker compared to me."
"I have a strength rating of 29!"
He made up a random number, taking advantage of the fact that foreign clans had little knowledge of the human"s game panel rules. After Su Mo said 29, Connie"s eyes immediately lit up.
She seemed to be fueled by courage to the point that even her spine straightened up considerably.
"The Cursed Tiger clan is one of the Five Royal Clans among the other clans on the wasteland."
"When they first arrived, they brought one thousand clansmen with them. To date, there are now…"
"8600 clansmen!"
Connie seemed to have a lot of dealings with the Cursed Tiger clan and talked about their origins as if they were family.
"8600? That many?"
The number had far exceeded the scope of Su Mo"s imagination.
On Earth, the final count of wild tigers around the world before transmigration was only about 4000. Even the Siberian tiger, the largest of all tigers, only had a population of 600 or so!
However, hearing that the Cursed Tiger clan contained more than 8000 clansmen now, Su Mo found this problem rather th.o.r.n.y to handle.
If these tigers were as fierce as the ones on Earth, even if Su Mo was the strongest person on the wasteland, just the thought of having more than 8,000 tigers charging forward at the same time would discourage anyone from fighting them.
If they encountered each other, then apart from hiding, the only option left would be to escape!
A head-on battle would be difficult to win if one did not have at least a hundred machine guns, hundreds of thousands of rounds of ammunition and proper defensive systems and structures.
"Yes, as far as I know, the number of human beings who have died at their hands is only about 5000, which isn"t enough for them to grow to such a large population."
"They rely on internecine warfare... by killing us!"
"They obtained their prestige, status, and nickname by killing us—foreign races just like them!"
Connie spoke in a grave tone and with a complicated expression.
Su Mo understood her feelings. As a member of a foreign race herself, she did not seem proud, excited or filled with hope when she spoke of Cursed Tiger, unlike how humans behaved when they spoke of Su Mo.
At the mention of Cursed Tiger, Connie was filled with hatred; a hatred that could not be erased from her eyes.
Had it not been for Cursed Tiger"s powerful abilities, Su Mo did not have the slightest doubt that Connie would pounce over and bite Cursed Tiger to death if it was here at the moment.
However, after her hatred for Cursed Tiger subsided, Connie shook her head in an attempt to shake off those unrealistic thoughts.
Prestige was achieved through killing.
This was even more so in the animal world.
"All foreign races should be afraid of them, this includes the soon-to-arrive marine creatures. The Marine Hunting Plan—It"s all part of the Five Royal Clan"s plan."
"Marine Hunting Plan?"
"What exactly is that?"